Author, Title, and Why I Chose this Book. I chose the book Timeline by Michael Crichton because I have read a few of his other books such as Prey, The Andromeda Strain, and The Great Train Robbery, and I thoroughly enjoyed them all. It's a dilemma that readers face. Should we read books by authors we know we like or challenge ourselves by branching out? I try to do some of each in my reading. This time, I decided to start with an author I knew I'd enjoy. I looked up several on-line reviews and found this novel was well-received. It's also about a time period that I'm interested in. All we tend to know about the midieval period is the usual cliches about knights in armor. I wanted to learn something more.
Genre Timeline falls into many genres, as evidenced by a review of the novel I read in the New York Times. The Times called it a "eco-techno-temp thriller." That may or may not be accurate, but hyphens are a necessity when talking about this book. It's science fiction, for starters. According to Dictionary.com, a science fiction novel is, “a form of fiction that draws imaginatively on scientific knowledge and speculation in its plot, setting, theme, etc.” This book is about a group of history students who travel in a time machine to 14th century France in order to rescue their history professor, who has gone on before. Crichton doesn't just assume a time machine, however. He delves deeply into the the topic, explaining the concept of quantum physics and imagining how it might be applied to transport people to different worlds. What Crichton's novels lack in character development (see below), they make up for in real or imagined scientific detail. Timeline also fits into the genre of historical fiction. It is fiction in that the story is made up, but the historical setting is real. The novel takes us to the year 1357 and recreates that period with remarkable detail. At one point, for example, the characters walk through a tannery. There is a stench to the place because "chicken shit" is used to soften the hides. The novel is filled with details such as these, as Crichton seeks to capture the feel, the smell, the taste and the essence of the period. Beneath all this, Timeline is an old-fashioned adventure story. It has sword fights and jousting, it has dozens of narrow escapes. In a review on his website, Crichton himself called the novel " an adventure story about three young historians who use new technology to travel to the medieval period to assist a friend."
Major Characters
Before discussing individual characters, one general observation. Crichton is not very good at bringing characters to life. I have now read four Crichton novels and they have clear similarities. They are rich in detail and filled with interesting scientific twists, but the characters tend to be forgettable. The hero in one novel could just as well be transplanted into any other novel. Consider the novel/movie for which Crichton is most famous, Jurassic Park. Is there any truly memorable character in the story? No. The drama comes purely from the scientific set-up (cloning gone nuts) and the plot (who will get eaten next?). Timeline is much the same. Having said that, three characters stand out.
1. Andre Marek.
Andre Marek is an assistant professor of history at Yale and the second in command at the Dordogne project,the archeologic dig in France. He is a tall and powerful 29 years old. But Marek's most striking characteristic is that he is obsessed with the past, particularly Midieval times. “Marek was a fanatic about it; he had learned medieval dress, language, and customs in detail; supposedly, he even knew how to joust..” (page35) He could speak Middle English, Old French, Occitan and Latin. He took broadsword lessons and led organized archery practice in the afternoons. As you can imagine, then, Marek emerges as a leader when the group is transported to the 14th century. At one point, another of the students, Chris Hughes, finds himself challenged to a jousting match by an evil noble, Sir Guy. Marek advises Hughes on how best to survive the joust -- by pretending to be unconconscious after getting knocked off the horse -- and then challenges Sir Guy's second-in-command to a joust. Marek ultimately kills his opponent and then swoops in to save Hughes. Marek is robust and daring, gallant and skilled. He ultimately makes a decision that demonstrates the depth of his attachment to the ancient period.
2. Robert Doniger
Robert Doniger is the founder of ITC and the mastermind behind the time machine. He is both brilliant and evil. Nobody can remember when he was not both. "By the time he was nine, he could fix any electronic appliance -- a radio, or a TV -- fiddling with the vacuum tubes and wires until he got it working. When his mother expressed concern that he would electrocute himself, he said, `Don't be an idiot.' " (Page 20). That was Doniger. He mocked employees and played hardball with everyone. But he was so smart and successful, he could get away with it. As ITC began to grow, Doniger demanded 300 million dollars in investments from anyone who wished to gain a seat on the board. “You want to know what I’m up to, you want to take part of what we’re doing here, it’s a third of a billion dollars. Take it or leave it. I don’t give a damn either way.” (Page 24) Doniger doesn't give a damn about lives, either. He uses people as guinea pigs, sending them back into the past without warning them of the sort of "transmission errors" that ultimately killed the scientist who died at the start of the book. He then sends the students back but doesn't really care if they come back alive, either. "Now, it's unfortunate, but we can handle a group of missing people: a tragic lab accident where all the bodies were incinerated, or a plane crash, nobody would really be the wiser." (pg. 284)
3. Chris Hughes
Chris Hughes is a “pretty boy”. He’s a scholar at Yale whose parents were killed in a car crash when he was 24. The professor took him into his house and treated Hughes like a son. He helped with his studies and with his girl troubles. None of this did much to prepare Hughes for life in the 14th Century. Hughes tries to talk his way out of the trip altogether, and then is terrified when things go awry. “We have no marker. Which means we have no way to get home. Which means we are totally screwed, André. And you want me to take it easy?” (Page 176) As the novel progresses, however, Hughes begins to change. It is as if he is growing into his new and more rugged environment. At Yale, he was coddled, so he acted like someone who had been coddled. But when circumstances changed, so did he. Late in the novel, he survives a fight alongside another student, Kate. “His whole body was one big bruise. It must be incredibly painful . She was amazed how he wasn’t complaining more. After all, this was the same guy who threw fits if he was served dried mushrooms instead of fresh ones in his morning omelet.”(Page 299) At times, this transformation seems unrealistic. Crichton doesn't explore the causes much. But he makes it clear that the Middle Ages had a beneficial impact on one of the students, at the very least. “His familiar complaints, his cavils and his uncertainties seemed suddenly irrelevant. In their place, he discovered that he had some source of boundless energy- almost aggressive vitality that he could not recall ever experiencing before.” (Page 299)
Themes
There are numerous themes in Timeline but two strike me as being
particularly important:
1. The importance of history: This isn't just a historical novel. It
is a novel that celebrates history. There's a common saying that
"Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it." But this novel
goes even further, reminding us of the central importance of history
to the present, to who we are and everything we do. “We’re all ruled
by the past, although no one understands it. No one recognizes the
power of the past. But if you think about it, the past has always been
more important than the present. The present is like a coral island
that sticks above the water, but is built upon millions of dead corals
under the surface, that no one sees. In the same way, our everyday
world is built upon millions and millions of events and decisions that
occurred in the past. And what we add in the present is trivial.”
(Pages 324-325) Crichton writes about the a teenager who has
breakfast, then goes to buy a CD by a new band. "But who defined what
a `band' is? Who defined a `store'? Who defined a `teenager'? Or
`breakfast'? To say nothing of all the rest, the kid's entire social
setting -- family, school, clothing, transportation and government."
Crichton's main focus in this book, of course, is on the Midieval
period. He said he picked this period because he believes that it is
misunderstood. We tend to think of it as a dark period before the
Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Crichton seeks to paint a very
different picture. At one point, he ridicules some stockbrokers who
knew nothing of the Middle Ages. “Yet the truth was that the modern
world was invented in the Middle Ages. Everything from the legal
system, to nation-states, to reliance on technology, to the concept of
romantic love had first been established in medieval times. These
stockbrokers owed the very notion of a market economy in the Middle
Ages. And if they didn’t know that , then they didn’t know the basic
facts of who they were . Why they did what they did. Where they had
come from.”(Page 73)
2. A second major theme is technology. Crichton writes eloquently
about the potential of technology -- and describes it in a way that
anyone can understand -- but he is wary of the perils of technology,
too. The most focused section may be his explanation of quantum
physics. Crichton does this brilliantly. He does it by having an
executive at ITC explain the workings of the time machine to the
history students, but the executive is actually explaining to the
reader along the way. He takes us from wave physics to particle
physics. He makes it understandable. In the end, he describes the idea
of a transport machine as much like a fax. Only instead of faxing
papers, it faxes people to a different time. But the other side of
this is the danger that things can go wrong. It is a theme that
Crichton returns to in many of his books. In Timeline, the scientist
found in the desert ultimately dies of "transmission errors," which
are essentially errors in the way the body is put back together after
being transported. Then the lab blows up so the student travelers
can't get safely back. The reader later learns that another traveler
-- sent more than a year before -- was forced to remain in the 14th
century because he didn't want to risk transmission errors on the way
back. Crichton seems to believe in the wonder of technology, but he
thinks there is an arrogance to those who think they can master it.
Conflict
Timeline has many forms of conflict, not all of which are immediately
self-evident.
1. Person vs. Person
This type of conflict occurs throughout the book. In the most obvious
examples, there are numerous examples of fighting, jousting,
sword-fighting and other forms of combat. Marek and Sir Guy engage in
a mighty battle. Every other page seems to describe a fight of some
sort. More broadly, there is a conflict between Doniger and anyone who
would foil his plans, especially the history students.
Person vs. Self
As I mentioned earlier, Crichton is not exactly a master at character
development. He doesn't allow his characters to be very introspective.
But Chris Hughes has to fight his fears as he finds himself in the
Middle Ages. He does this and later slays a huge knight to save his
fellow student, Kate. The one student who chooses not to go on the
trip, David, has to wrestle with his conscience over this choice. He
ultimately finds peace by helping to bring the other students back.
Finally, Andre Marek has to look inside himself to decide if he wants
to return to the present or stay in the past.
Person v Technology
This is the central conflict and it is referred to throughout the
book. There is the immediate problem of how to fix the technology in
order to get the students back, and there is the larger problem
represented by Doniger's effort to master a new technology for his
personal benefit. Quantum physics is a brilliant technology. But who
owns it and what problems can it cause? In the interview on his
website, Crichton talks about how television was once seen as a
revolutionary technology that would result in a more educated populace
and would elevate the tastes of the masses. That hasn't exactly worked
out. In Timeline, Doniger believes that time travel will have the same
revolutionary impact. Every generation believes that its technologies
will somehow save the world. But the technologies are only as good as
the people who run them in the end.
Imagery I chose two images to symbolize the novel. On the left, there is a timer, symbolizing all the ways that time factors into the book. The students travel in time, they move along a timeline. Once there, they have 37 hours to get back to the time machine to be returned to their usual lives. The book doesn't even have regular chapter headings. It has time markers, such as 30:21:02 and 9:57:02. The other imagine is a bow and arrow, representing the time period in which the students land. They find themselves in feudal France in the 14th century, caught in a battle between two warlords. The place is incredibly violent, starting from the moment the students first land, when a group of knights finds the students and immediately slaughters the two security guards who had accompanied them. The reader learns about all sorts of weaponry, from the lances used to joust to the rudimentary forms of gunpowder that are just starting to be deployed. In the center of all this was the bow and arrow, which was having its own impact on the world. The English had started to rely on waves and waves of archers in battle, against which knights on horses stood no chance. But the French kept sending mounted knights into battle even as they were slaughtered. They did this for cultural reasons. A knight was a nobleman. He required horses and armor, which meant wealth. Archers were just men with bows and arrows. They could be commoners.
Five Vocabulary Words
1. Rectilinear: “And the rest of this image, the squares within
squares, all rectilinear, it looks like . . . you know, this might be
a monastery.” (Page 13) Rectilinear is an adjective that refers to
something formed by straight lines or creating straight lines.
2. Refectory: “Who said the refectory was next to the
cloister?” (Page 53) Refectory is a noun that refers to a dining place
in a religious building.
3. Eviscerated: "Where pregnant women were eviscerated for sport."
(Page 152). Eviscerate is an adjective meaning to remove the entrails
from, to disembowel. In modern times, we do not usually mean it
literally. In the Middle Ages, they did.
4. . Furrow -- “Most of the fields were already planted, their
furrows closed over. ” (Page 165) A furrow is a noun that means a
narrow groove in the ground, especially by a plow. Today, we talk more
often of people who have "furrowed brows."
5. Tremulous: "His legs were tremulous, rubbery." (Page 216).
Tremulous is an adjective meaning characterized by trembling.
Other Similar Works
Timeline is like a lot of Crichton books. Indeed, you could almost suggest that Crichton relied on a formula. He uses scientific complexity and old-fashioned thrills and chases to keep readers on the edge of their seats. Sometimes, the danger is a deadly virus (The Andromeda Strain), sometimes it's DNA gone crazy (Jurassic Park) and sometimes its a time-machine and knights carrying shop objects (Timeline). But in all those cases, a group of heroic or flawed characters has to fight for their lives.
Beyond the Crichton novels, Timeline reminds me of other stories where the protaganists are injected into different and unfamiliar worlds. In that way, it is somewhat similar to The Hunger Games. The characters are dropped into a dangerous new environment and forced to make their way. But in Timeline, unlike the Hunger Games, there is the element of time travel, which is a common theme in fiction. Start with A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, in which Scrooge travels back and forth in time. The new movie, Looper, is about time travel. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Hermione Granger acquires a Time-Turner, a magical necklace that allows her to travel back in time. Time travel is a perpetual fascination for story-tellers.
In many of these other stories, the assumption about time travel is that it can help you change the ultimate course of events. At the end of Looper, the main character shoots himself to undo a horrifying chain of events that he knows will otherwise occur. But in Timeline, Doninger, the genius scientist, argues that you can't change history. "A single person can do little to alter events in any meaningful way. Of course, great masses of people can change the course of history. But one person? No. " (Page. 151). It is a puzzling statement and it is contradicted in the novel itself. The professor leaves a note in the 14th century that is found hundreds of years later. One of the time travelers winds up marrying someone from the Middle Ages. If we learned anything from Michael J. Fox and Back to the Future --another adventure along the time-space continuum -- it's that time travel has to have the potential to change the course of history. Timeline is just the latest work of fiction to explore the complexities.
Author, Title, and Why I Chose this Book.
I chose the book Timeline by Michael Crichton because I have read a few of his other books such as Prey, The Andromeda Strain, and The Great Train Robbery, and I thoroughly enjoyed them all. It's a dilemma that readers face. Should we read books by authors we know we like or challenge ourselves by branching out? I try to do some of each in my reading. This time, I decided to start with an author I knew I'd enjoy. I looked up several on-line reviews and found this novel was well-received. It's also about a time period that I'm interested in. All we tend to know about the midieval period is the usual cliches about knights in armor. I wanted to learn something more.
Genre
Timeline falls into many genres, as evidenced by a review of the novel I read in the New York Times. The Times called it a "eco-techno-temp thriller." That may or may not be accurate, but hyphens are a necessity when talking about this book. It's science fiction, for starters. According to Dictionary.com, a science fiction novel is, “a form of fiction that draws imaginatively on scientific knowledge and speculation in its plot, setting, theme, etc.” This book is about a group of history students who travel in a time machine to 14th century France in order to rescue their history professor, who has gone on before. Crichton doesn't just assume a time machine, however. He delves deeply into the the topic, explaining the concept of quantum physics and imagining how it might be applied to transport people to different worlds. What Crichton's novels lack in character development (see below), they make up for in real or imagined scientific detail. Timeline also fits into the genre of historical fiction. It is fiction
in that the story is made up, but the historical setting is real. The novel takes us to the year 1357 and recreates that period with remarkable detail. At one point, for example, the characters walk
through a tannery. There is a stench to the place because "chicken shit" is used to soften the hides. The novel is filled with details such as these, as Crichton seeks to capture the feel, the smell, the
taste and the essence of the period. Beneath all this, Timeline is an old-fashioned adventure story. It has sword fights and jousting, it has dozens of narrow escapes. In a review on his website, Crichton himself called the novel " an adventure story about three young historians who use new technology to travel to the medieval period to assist a friend."
Major Characters
Before discussing individual characters, one general observation.
Crichton is not very good at bringing characters to life. I have now
read four Crichton novels and they have clear similarities. They are
rich in detail and filled with interesting scientific twists, but the
characters tend to be forgettable. The hero in one novel could just as
well be transplanted into any other novel. Consider the novel/movie
for which Crichton is most famous, Jurassic Park. Is there any truly
memorable character in the story? No. The drama comes purely from the
scientific set-up (cloning gone nuts) and the plot (who will get eaten
next?). Timeline is much the same. Having said that, three characters
stand out.
1. Andre Marek.
Andre Marek is an assistant professor of history at Yale and the
second in command at the Dordogne project,the archeologic dig in
France. He is a tall and powerful 29 years old. But Marek's most
striking characteristic is that he is obsessed with the past,
particularly Midieval times. “Marek was a fanatic about it; he had
learned medieval dress, language, and customs in detail; supposedly,
he even knew how to joust..” (page35) He could speak Middle English,
Old French, Occitan and Latin. He took broadsword lessons and led
organized archery practice in the afternoons. As you can imagine,
then, Marek emerges as a leader when the group is transported to the
14th century. At one point, another of the students, Chris Hughes,
finds himself challenged to a jousting match by an evil noble, Sir
Guy. Marek advises Hughes on how best to survive the joust -- by
pretending to be unconconscious after getting knocked off the horse --
and then challenges Sir Guy's second-in-command to a joust. Marek
ultimately kills his opponent and then swoops in to save Hughes. Marek
is robust and daring, gallant and skilled. He ultimately makes a
decision that demonstrates the depth of his attachment to the ancient
period.
2. Robert Doniger
Robert Doniger is the founder of ITC and the mastermind behind the
time machine. He is both brilliant and evil. Nobody can remember when
he was not both. "By the time he was nine, he could fix any electronic
appliance -- a radio, or a TV -- fiddling with the vacuum tubes and
wires until he got it working. When his mother expressed concern that
he would electrocute himself, he said, `Don't be an idiot.' " (Page
20). That was Doniger. He mocked employees and played hardball with
everyone. But he was so smart and successful, he could get away with
it. As ITC began to grow, Doniger demanded 300 million dollars in
investments from anyone who wished to gain a seat on the board. “You
want to know what I’m up to, you want to take part of what we’re doing
here, it’s a third of a billion dollars. Take it or leave it. I don’t
give a damn either way.” (Page 24)
Doniger doesn't give a damn about lives, either. He uses people as
guinea pigs, sending them back into the past without warning them of
the sort of "transmission errors" that ultimately killed the scientist
who died at the start of the book. He then sends the students back but
doesn't really care if they come back alive, either. "Now, it's
unfortunate, but we can handle a group of missing people: a tragic lab
accident where all the bodies were incinerated, or a plane crash,
nobody would really be the wiser." (pg. 284)
3. Chris Hughes
Chris Hughes is a “pretty boy”. He’s a scholar at Yale whose parents
were killed in a car crash when he was 24. The professor took him into
his house and treated Hughes like a son. He helped with his studies
and with his girl troubles. None of this did much to prepare Hughes
for life in the 14th Century. Hughes tries to talk his way out of the
trip altogether, and then is terrified when things go awry. “We have
no marker. Which means we have no way to get home. Which means we are
totally screwed, André. And you want me to take it easy?” (Page 176)
As the novel progresses, however, Hughes begins to change. It is as if
he is growing into his new and more rugged environment. At Yale, he
was coddled, so he acted like someone who had been coddled. But when
circumstances changed, so did he. Late in the novel, he survives a
fight alongside another student, Kate. “His whole body was one big
bruise. It must be incredibly painful . She was amazed how he wasn’t
complaining more. After all, this was the same guy who threw fits if
he was served dried mushrooms instead of fresh ones in his morning
omelet.”(Page 299) At times, this transformation seems unrealistic.
Crichton doesn't explore the causes much. But he makes it clear that
the Middle Ages had a beneficial impact on one of the students, at the
very least. “His familiar complaints, his cavils and his uncertainties
seemed suddenly irrelevant. In their place, he discovered that he had
some source of boundless energy- almost aggressive vitality that he
could not recall ever experiencing before.” (Page 299)
Themes
There are numerous themes in Timeline but two strike me as being
particularly important:
1. The importance of history: This isn't just a historical novel. It
is a novel that celebrates history. There's a common saying that
"Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it." But this novel
goes even further, reminding us of the central importance of history
to the present, to who we are and everything we do. “We’re all ruled
by the past, although no one understands it. No one recognizes the
power of the past. But if you think about it, the past has always been
more important than the present. The present is like a coral island
that sticks above the water, but is built upon millions of dead corals
under the surface, that no one sees. In the same way, our everyday
world is built upon millions and millions of events and decisions that
occurred in the past. And what we add in the present is trivial.”
(Pages 324-325) Crichton writes about the a teenager who has
breakfast, then goes to buy a CD by a new band. "But who defined what
a `band' is? Who defined a `store'? Who defined a `teenager'? Or
`breakfast'? To say nothing of all the rest, the kid's entire social
setting -- family, school, clothing, transportation and government."
Crichton's main focus in this book, of course, is on the Midieval
period. He said he picked this period because he believes that it is
misunderstood. We tend to think of it as a dark period before the
Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Crichton seeks to paint a very
different picture. At one point, he ridicules some stockbrokers who
knew nothing of the Middle Ages. “Yet the truth was that the modern
world was invented in the Middle Ages. Everything from the legal
system, to nation-states, to reliance on technology, to the concept of
romantic love had first been established in medieval times. These
stockbrokers owed the very notion of a market economy in the Middle
Ages. And if they didn’t know that , then they didn’t know the basic
facts of who they were . Why they did what they did. Where they had
come from.”(Page 73)
2. A second major theme is technology. Crichton writes eloquently
about the potential of technology -- and describes it in a way that
anyone can understand -- but he is wary of the perils of technology,
too. The most focused section may be his explanation of quantum
physics. Crichton does this brilliantly. He does it by having an
executive at ITC explain the workings of the time machine to the
history students, but the executive is actually explaining to the
reader along the way. He takes us from wave physics to particle
physics. He makes it understandable. In the end, he describes the idea
of a transport machine as much like a fax. Only instead of faxing
papers, it faxes people to a different time. But the other side of
this is the danger that things can go wrong. It is a theme that
Crichton returns to in many of his books. In Timeline, the scientist
found in the desert ultimately dies of "transmission errors," which
are essentially errors in the way the body is put back together after
being transported. Then the lab blows up so the student travelers
can't get safely back. The reader later learns that another traveler
-- sent more than a year before -- was forced to remain in the 14th
century because he didn't want to risk transmission errors on the way
back. Crichton seems to believe in the wonder of technology, but he
thinks there is an arrogance to those who think they can master it.
Conflict
Timeline has many forms of conflict, not all of which are immediately
self-evident.
1. Person vs. Person
This type of conflict occurs throughout the book. In the most obvious
examples, there are numerous examples of fighting, jousting,
sword-fighting and other forms of combat. Marek and Sir Guy engage in
a mighty battle. Every other page seems to describe a fight of some
sort. More broadly, there is a conflict between Doniger and anyone who
would foil his plans, especially the history students.
Person vs. Self
As I mentioned earlier, Crichton is not exactly a master at character
development. He doesn't allow his characters to be very introspective.
But Chris Hughes has to fight his fears as he finds himself in the
Middle Ages. He does this and later slays a huge knight to save his
fellow student, Kate. The one student who chooses not to go on the
trip, David, has to wrestle with his conscience over this choice. He
ultimately finds peace by helping to bring the other students back.
Finally, Andre Marek has to look inside himself to decide if he wants
to return to the present or stay in the past.
Person v Technology
This is the central conflict and it is referred to throughout the
book. There is the immediate problem of how to fix the technology in
order to get the students back, and there is the larger problem
represented by Doniger's effort to master a new technology for his
personal benefit. Quantum physics is a brilliant technology. But who
owns it and what problems can it cause? In the interview on his
website, Crichton talks about how television was once seen as a
revolutionary technology that would result in a more educated populace
and would elevate the tastes of the masses. That hasn't exactly worked
out. In Timeline, Doniger believes that time travel will have the same
revolutionary impact. Every generation believes that its technologies
will somehow save the world. But the technologies are only as good as
the people who run them in the end.
Imagery
I chose two images to symbolize the novel. On the left, there is a
timer, symbolizing all the ways that time factors into the book. The
students travel in time, they move along a timeline. Once there, they
have 37 hours to get back to the time machine to be returned to their
usual lives. The book doesn't even have regular chapter headings. It
has time markers, such as 30:21:02 and 9:57:02. The other imagine is a
bow and arrow, representing the time period in which the students
land. They find themselves in feudal France in the 14th century,
caught in a battle between two warlords. The place is incredibly
violent, starting from the moment the students first land, when a
group of knights finds the students and immediately slaughters the
two security guards who had accompanied them. The reader learns about
all sorts of weaponry, from the lances used to joust to the
rudimentary forms of gunpowder that are just starting to be deployed.
In the center of all this was the bow and arrow, which was having its
own impact on the world. The English had started to rely on waves and
waves of archers in battle, against which knights on horses stood no
chance. But the French kept sending mounted knights into battle even
as they were slaughtered. They did this for cultural reasons. A knight
was a nobleman. He required horses and armor, which meant wealth.
Archers were just men with bows and arrows. They could be commoners.
Five Vocabulary Words
1. Rectilinear: “And the rest of this image, the squares within
squares, all rectilinear, it looks like . . . you know, this might be
a monastery.” (Page 13) Rectilinear is an adjective that refers to
something formed by straight lines or creating straight lines.
2. Refectory: “Who said the refectory was next to the
cloister?” (Page 53) Refectory is a noun that refers to a dining place
in a religious building.
3. Eviscerated: "Where pregnant women were eviscerated for sport."
(Page 152). Eviscerate is an adjective meaning to remove the entrails
from, to disembowel. In modern times, we do not usually mean it
literally. In the Middle Ages, they did.
4. . Furrow -- “Most of the fields were already planted, their
furrows closed over. ” (Page 165) A furrow is a noun that means a
narrow groove in the ground, especially by a plow. Today, we talk more
often of people who have "furrowed brows."
5. Tremulous: "His legs were tremulous, rubbery." (Page 216).
Tremulous is an adjective meaning characterized by trembling.
Other Similar Works
Timeline is like a lot of Crichton books. Indeed, you could almost
suggest that Crichton relied on a formula. He uses scientific
complexity and old-fashioned thrills and chases to keep readers on the
edge of their seats. Sometimes, the danger is a deadly virus (The
Andromeda Strain), sometimes it's DNA gone crazy (Jurassic Park) and
sometimes its a time-machine and knights carrying shop objects
(Timeline). But in all those cases, a group of heroic or flawed
characters has to fight for their lives.
Beyond the Crichton novels, Timeline reminds me of other stories where
the protaganists are injected into different and unfamiliar worlds. In
that way, it is somewhat similar to The Hunger Games. The characters
are dropped into a dangerous new environment and forced to make their
way. But in Timeline, unlike the Hunger Games, there is the element of
time travel, which is a common theme in fiction. Start with A
Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, in which Scrooge travels back and
forth in time. The new movie, Looper, is about time travel. In Harry
Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Hermione Granger acquires a
Time-Turner, a magical necklace that allows her to travel back in
time. Time travel is a perpetual fascination for story-tellers.
In many of these other stories, the assumption about time travel is
that it can help you change the ultimate course of events. At the end
of Looper, the main character shoots himself to undo a horrifying
chain of events that he knows will otherwise occur. But in Timeline,
Doninger, the genius scientist, argues that you can't change history.
"A single person can do little to alter events in any meaningful way.
Of course, great masses of people can change the course of history.
But one person? No. " (Page. 151). It is a puzzling statement and it is
contradicted in the novel itself. The professor leaves a note in the
14th century that is found hundreds of years later. One of the time
travelers winds up marrying someone from the Middle Ages. If we
learned anything from Michael J. Fox and Back to the Future --another
adventure along the time-space continuum -- it's that time travel has
to have the potential to change the course of history. Timeline is
just the latest work of fiction to explore the complexities.
Review
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/430117701